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Conclusion After many days, when time sufficed for the people to arrange their thoughts in reference to the foregoing scene, there was more than one account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold. Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a Scarlet Letterthe very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynneimprinted in the flesh. As regarded its origin there were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been conjectural. Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penancewhich he afterwards, in so many futile methods, followed outby inflicting a hideous torture on himself. Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and poisonous drugs. Others, againand those best able to appreciate the ministers peculiar sensibility, and the wonderful operation of his spirit upon the bodywhispered their belief, that the awful symbol was the effect of the ever-active tooth of remorse, gnawing from the inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heavens dreadful judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The reader may choose among these theories. We have thrown all the light we could acquire upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done its office, erase its deep print out of our own brain, where long meditation has fixed it in very undesirable distinctness. It is singular, nevertheless, that certain persons, who were spectators of the whole scene, and professed never once to have removed their eyes from the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, denied that there was any mark whatever on his breast, more than on a new-born infants. Neither, by their report, had his dying words acknowledged, not even remotely implied, anythe slightestconnection on his part, with the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so long worn the scarlet letter. According to these highly respectable witnesses, the minister, conscious that he was dyingconscious, also, that the reverence of the multitude placed him already among saints and angelshad desired, by yielding up his breath in the arms of that fallen woman, to express to the world how utterly nugatory is the choicest of mans own righteousness. After exhausting life in his efforts for mankinds spiritual good, he had made the manner of his death a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson, that, in the view of Infinite Purity, we are sinners all alike. It was to teach them, that the holiest among us has but attained so far above his fellows as to discern more clearly the Mercy which looks down, and repudiate more utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look aspiringly upward. Without disputing a truth so momentous, we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimmesdales story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a mans friendsand especially a clergymanswill sometimes uphold his character, when proofs, clear as the midday sunshine on the scarlet letter, establish him a false and sin-stained creature of the dust. The authority which we have chiefly followeda manuscript of old date, drawn up from the verbal testimony of individuals, some of whom had known Hester Prynne, while others had heard the tale from contemporary witnessesfully confirms the view taken in the foregoing pages. Among many morals which press upon us from the poor ministers miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred! Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdales death, in the appearance and demeanour of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energyall his vital and intellectual forceseemed at once to desert him, insomuch that he positively withered up, shrivelled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge; and when, by its completest triumph and consummation, that evil principle was left with no further material to support itwhen, in short, there was no more Devils work on earth for him to doit only remained for the unhumanised mortal to betake himself whither his Master would find him tasks enough, and pay him his wages duly But, to all these shadowy beings, so long our near acquaintancesas well Roger Chillingworth as his companionswe would fain be merciful. It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders |
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